Google has developed a new design for the Google Maps app on Android. The new design does away with most of the full-screen tabs and instead adds sheet-based layouts that can be dragged and dropped. This was reported by 9to5Google.
The redesign is designed to show the map itself as much as possible, always leaving it in the background. This helps to maintain context when using the application.
You can close the sheet using the new "x" icon in the upper right corner or by swiping back from the left/right edge.
Another major change concerns route search. The initial interface for entering a destination with a mode switcher and a list of recent destinations remains unchanged and is a full-screen page.
However, after entering, only the start/end point of the route is displayed at the top of the screen. The way to switch modes has been moved to the bottom of the screen for better accessibility. This interface already uses sheets.
The first testing of the new design took place in February 2024, but it was shut down a few weeks later. Some changes were made and a new round of testing started in May. The new design is now more widely deployed on the stable channel (version 11.136.x) of Google Maps on Android. It is not yet available on iOS.